Secrets Come and Secrets Go
by Arian Awelon
Summary: *UPDATED* Funny how secrets can be kept hidden from even the best of friends. And I mean _all_ secrets, not just I-wet-the-bed ones. Ron, Hermione and Harry have some secrets that are vital to surviving. But can they trust others in time?
1. Incident in the Emporium

The only characters that I own in here are Quelcya Rhiannon (Cy) and any other characters that I mention that are not found in the HP books. Those chars belong to the HP Lady, Miss Rowling, whom we all have heard of, I'm sure. Unless of course, you are a seriously deprived child or human and haven't a clue about anything because you haven't left ffnet for the past few years (or the house, for that matter!) ^_^ No insult meant to ppl, natch. Okay, this is set in Harry's sixth year at Hogwarts, and Cy is in the same year and house as he. Read on, my loyal minions!  
  
~~~  
  
Cy looked at the Owl Emporium, about to head in. She had dropped her packages off at the Leaky Cauldron, and was killing time until her mother, Gwyn, was done with her shopping. Idly shaking her money-pouch, she smiled at the chink of coins and reached for the door.  
  
"Cy! Cy Rhiannon!" came a very familiar voice. Cy turned around, and waved to the advancing figure. She almost didn't recognize Harry Potter, he had grown quite a bit over the summer and could probably easily compete with Ron Weasley in regards to who was taller.  
  
"Hey, Harry," she greeted him as he got closer. "Done with your shopping?" she asked, eyeing the few packages he held in his arms.  
  
"Yeah. The rest of it is at the Leaky Cauldron, along with all of the Weasley's stuff. I'm staying with them until school starts." He looked much happier than he had at the end of the last school year, and much more at home in Diagon Alley than ever before.  
  
"Wow, one whole day!" Cy said sarcastically, grinning the whole time. "Hard to believe that school starts tomorrow."  
  
"Yeah... Hey, have you seen Hermione or Cari?" Cy shrugged at his question.  
  
"I ran across Cari on the Muggle Underground, but we got separated. I think that she had arranged to meet with What's-His-Face or something." Caridwen, or Cari, was Cy's closest friend, but often spent more time with a Ravenclaw boy than with the main group.  
  
"Ah, then we can safely assume that she's okay. Ron was going with Fred and George to look at some stuff at the edge of Knockturn Alley, and I decided to just wander. Haven't seen Hermione since the last day of school."  
  
Cy shrugged again. "She's probably with Viktor or something." She turned back to face the door, opening it. "Stay or come, Harry? I need an owl."  
  
"I'll stay here and guard my packages. We can chat more later, okay?"  
  
"Definitely." Cy headed in, looking from perch to perch in the darkened room. She made her way to the very back of the shop, finally spying an owl with large amber eyes and a tawny body. She smiled, motioning to an attendant and pointing out the owl that she wanted. The attendant came forward, looking from Cy to the owl and back again, eyes lingering on Cy.  
  
"Pretty choice, but not half as pretty as you, miss." He grinned somewhat rudely, and Cy motioned to the owl again.  
  
"Before I grow old, if you please," she reminded him. He nodded, but still did not don the gloves that were needed for owl handling. Instead, he had been inching closer to her without her noticing. Cy immediately tried to back up, but the attendant grabbed her on the waist and had his lips on hers before she realized what was going on. She struggled, but he held her with one hand, the other travelling up and down her body. Cy realized with horror that he was going to try to rape her, and her body immediately began to contort into the shape that it thought was best for fight/flight - her Animagus form. Struggling to remain human, Cy yelled telepathically as best as she could.   
  
'Harry, Hermione, Cari, Ron, HELP! Dear God, someone help me!' Her mental voice diminished to a whisper as she fought against the attendant. The group of five had learned that they all had telepathic abilities, and Cy was one of the best in the group, having a further range than most. There were also two Animagi in the group, and they had also learned that the telepathic abilities were retained no matter what form someone took. The attendant didn't notice anything strange; he was intent on getting what he wanted from Cy. Suddenly, the attendant was pulled away from her, and she dropped to all fours and scrambled into the shadows, scaring several of the closer owls half to death, tears running down her muzzle.  
  
'Cy! Cy! Quelcya! Get a hold on yourself, they'll notice!' The familiar voice cut across her thoughts, bringing her back to a semblance of reality. She turned and looked up through the shadows at her saviour. Harry was holding the attendant in a headlock, berating him and kneeing him in the stomach to reinforce what he said.  
  
'Harry?' Cy asked, confused.  
  
'You called for me, and I came. Told the others that I could handle it. Look, I'll get this guy to get your owl, then we can leave.' He released the attendant, telling him to fetch the owl immediately, which he ran off to do. Then Harry knelt down and reached a hand out into the shadows, eyes straining to find Cy.  
  
"I'm here." Harry half-turned, startled, and rose.  
  
"Cy, you okay?" he asked bluntly, watching the tears slide down her cheeks.  
  
"No, Harry, I'm not." She sighed. "I can't keep calling for you guys to help me, but that's the first thing that I do!" She almost dissolved into complete tears again, but Harry pulled her in for a friendly hug.  
  
"It'll be okay, Cy. We can't all be great wizards or warriors. We have our strengths and our weaknesses, and we adjust to live with them. We being telepathic is very lucky, so we may yet survive longer than others believe. I'll always be here for you, I promise." When her tears stopped, he slowly released her, and they went to collect Cy's new owl.  
  
"What happened to your girlfriend?" the clerk asked, leaning nonchalantly against the desk and motioning to Cy's tearstained face.  
  
"She's fine," Harry said curtly. He paid for the owl, since Cy was still not thinking clearly, and they left the Emporium, blinking in the bright sunlight. "Ice cream?" Harry asked her. "My treat, of course."  
  
They headed for the ice cream place, and sat down at one of the tables outside. Harry placed the orders for them, and they just sat for a little bit, each thinking their own thoughts. Harry glanced across the table, startled, as several horrible images flashed across the inside of his mind. They grew more and more frantic, and Harry sent back different images; of a cool dark forest, having the entire night to run through, and true freedom for several hours. Gradually, Cy's images became less and less frantic, and they began to eat their ice cream in silence, letting the nearby conversations waft over them.  
  
"She's so annoying! Always yelling for us, and I hardly get a moment's peace. Geez, if she had better control over herself, the rest of us wouldn't constantly be in these stupid predicaments! Honestly, it's always 'Cy Cy Cy Cy', never anybody else, unless it's Harry. And that's all we ever hear!" Cy turned at the sound of her name, searching through the tables until she found the owner of the voice. Caridwen was sitting with Draco Malfoy, chatting eagerly with him. As Malfoy felt Cy's eyes on him, he glanced up and grinned slowly, tapping Cari on the arm and motioning in their direction.  
  
'Ah, so you decided to speak about me behind my back, Caridwen Ddraig Goch, and with Draco Malfoy of all people. Honestly, have you no honour whatsoever? Maybe _you_ are the one that belongs in Durmstrang, not Krum,' Cy shot across the gap, lacing her words with all of her anger.  
  
'Draco is more interesting than you are, and he at least pays attention to me. Maybe you'd best keep your eye on Harry Potter, he certainly watches you enough.' Cari sounded bored.  
  
'He does not!' Cy's pale golden eyes had widened in shock. She almost turned back to Harry, but didn't, in case that was what Cari wanted her to do. 'Cari, how could you be so malicious?'  
  
'I'm not malicious, Quelcya Rhiannon. It's the truth, plain and simple. No way around it. Turn and face him, I know that's what you'd rather do than bicker with me. Our friendship is _over_, Quelcya. Link or no link, we are friends no more. I'm sick of you.' She turned back to Draco, repeating the conversation. Cy was struck with a sudden thought: What if she told Draco about the two Animagi in the group? Dumbledore didn't know about them, as far as they knew, and getting in trouble wasn't a good idea...  
  
"Harry?" she asked, turning back quickly. Harry turned bright red and quickly glanced away, but Cy realized that he had been staring at her. "Harry, Cari's friends with Malfoy now. She won't hang out with us and she refuses to acknowledge me as a friend." Silently, she also told him her fear about the Animagi secret, and winced as the colour promptly drained from his face.  
  
"What do we do?" he asked in a whisper.  
  
"I don't know. Watch, wait, and be very bloody careful, I guess."  
  
~~~  
  
End of Chapter One. You like? Giid, then review or read on (I dun' really care which, but reviews are _always_ nice, as most of you know). Let's continue on, shall we? *points finger* Click either below on the chapter button, or scroll up (masses of fun!) and click on the chapter button at the top of the wonderful screen. Okay? Lovely! Enjoy your reading of my fanfic! 


	2. School

Next chapter! Honestly, I do hope that you read the first chapter. Yeah, I'm going to be 'explaining' stuff throughout the whole thing, but it's always best to read this chapter by chapter. ^_^ Now we're jumping ahead to a while after classes have started at Hogwarts, as I'm too lazy to do a bloody transition. Read on!  
  
Note: If any of this sounds really messed up (weird, I mean), I'm not on crack or pot or anything. I'd like some pot, but I'm too scared that I'll be in trouble. What I _am_ on is my lovely new incense - I burn it to calm my nerves (it's Anti-Stress, and Goddess knows I've a lot of that with midterms next week) and I think it has some weird side effects like me being more bonkers than before.  
  
~~~  
  
Cy stared at her Potions homework, attempting to figure out what Snape was trying to get her to do.   
  
"Add the leaves to the mixture, and bring it to a boil," she muttered, digging through the packets on the table in front of her. Not finding what she needed, she looked up, annoyed. "Who took my Mandrake leaves? Someone own up, blast it!" No one answered her, so she turned to the person nearest her and asked, "Have you seen my Mandrake leaves? They've gone missing, and they were here a moment a... go..." she trailed off, snatching the packet away from Caridwen.  
  
"Oops, were those _your_ Mandrake leaves? Maybe you should watch them more carefully, or were you too flustered by Potter over there?" she asked sarcastically, motioning to Ron and Harry, who were playing a game of Gobstones near the fire.  
  
"You're so annoying, Caridwen! Just go away and leave me alone, I reserved this table!" Her eyes flashed warningly, turning into firey gold.  
  
"I don't see your name anywhere, Rhiannon." She had picked up Malfoy's habit of speaking, Cy noticed with disgust.  
  
"Just, just leave me alone! I don't want to lose my temper, I still have Divination homework to do!" She turned away, almost overturning her cauldron by accident.  
  
"Careful, Cy!" Hermione said, picking up her papers and moving a little bit away. "Take care, we don't want an accident. Snape didn't give you the best of potions to concoct."  
  
"Great," she muttered, hurrying to finish the potion and write out her results. "At least he's stopped making us write those bloody essays," she reminded herself in an attempt to cheer up. Once she had tidied up the cauldron and ingredients, she pulled out her Divination book, turning to the page that she needed in order to write a small report about how the flames in a fire could tell the future.  
  
"Fires are the most accurate way of foreseeing, as they are one of the major elements. They are more accurate than water, and much more reliable than the mental visions of one person. It does not take someone with the Sight to See anything in a fire, all it takes is someone with enough concentration and will-power to control the fire's mental rampaging." Cy summarized what she had read, adding in her own thoughts to make it seem more realistic. She double-checked her scrawl about the Divination homework, and groaned aloud.   
  
"Harry! Have you done the fire-Seeing yet?" she yelled across the room. He glanced up, then shook his head.  
  
"Damn!" she said with feeling, standing up and moving to sit on the floor right next to Harry's chair, which was closest to the fire. She blanked her mind as best she could, blocking out the stray thoughts of the others in the room, and gazed into the flickering orange flames, waiting for something, anything.  
  
Half an hour later she had still seen nothing, and most of the students had left the Common Room and gone to bed. Cy noticed with disgust that none of her friends were in the room, annoyed that none had pulled her away from the fire. Deciding to give the stupid project another five minutes, then go to bed, she turned her face back to the flames.  
  
A figure appeared, bent over a stack of books. He - or she - was standing in what looked like a modified bedroom, with jars lining the walls. As Cy watched, another figure came into view, and she stifled a gasp as she instantly recognized Wormtail - Peter Pettigrew - new hand and all. She leaned closer, straining to hear the muffled voices, trying to recognize the first figure. The picture changed, moved to an overhead view of what the first figure was looking at, and Cy almost fell into the fire, not expecting what she saw. It was Harry, asleep in the boy's dormitory. His sleep looked calm, but as she watched, she saw him contort in various manners, fighting something both mentally and physically. Wondering why she couldn't hear any of the telepaths, Cy remembered her mental wall and promptly dropped it, crying out as pain from Harry's mind swamped hers. She was still staring into the fire, and she fought to get a grip on herself again, biting hard on her fist to keep from crying out again. The hunched figure straightened, and Cy saw his face. Voldemort waved a hand and Wormtail moved away, and Voldemort sat in a chair.  
  
"Honestly, Little Miss Telepath, what are you doing staring at me and what I do? How did you get through my guarding?" He looked bored, but grinned when her eyes widened in shock and she fought for something to say.  
  
"How did you know I...?"  
  
"Easy little spell, my dear. I didn't realize that there were any young telepaths out there - it's not exactly a common ability, you know." He frowned, then snapped his fingers and muttered something. The walls of the Common Room dissolved around her, and the walls of Voldemort's room came into view. Cy was still seated on the floor, but was right in front of Voldemort when everything focused. She scooted back, running into Wormtail.  
  
"Master, what do you want with her?" Wormtail asked, putting a hand on her shoulder to restrain her.  
  
"I want to speak with her, Wormtail, person to person. The whole fire thing gets boring after a while, and this is so much more... effective." He seemed bored again. "Go away, Wormtail, I'll handle things from here." Wormtail bowed and left, bolting the door behind him. Cy looked away from Voldemort, trying to find a way out. Suddenly, her knees buckled and she sat down hard on the carpeting. "There, so much nicer now. Guests shouldn't stand, you know," he chided her.  
  
"I'm not your guest!" Cy shot up, more from fear than from any semblance of courage. Voldemort laughed his chilling laugh.  
  
"Little girl, you are _indeed_ my guest! You are in my home, thus my guest. You don't think you're my _prisoner_, do you?" His face grew serious again. "Down to business. I did not bring you here to bicker about petty things like etiquette. Why were you watching me?"  
  
"I, I, It was an assignment. I just stared into the fire and there you were," Cy said, rather against her will.  
  
"Assignment. Hm. What class?"  
  
"Divination." She didn't expect Voldemort to sit bolt upright, glaring at her.  
  
"How _dare_ you take that class! How _dare_ you!" She looked at him in shock, unsure of how to answer his sudden outburst.  
  
"Erm, it sounded like an okay thing to take..."   
  
"When did you find out that you are telepathic?" He was still glaring, and Cy felt like bursting into tears.   
  
"I don't know!" she wailed. "When I was little or something!" She didn't understand how the two were related, but, whenever she wanted to not answer a question, she felt forced to answer.  
  
"Stupid child, you don't know of the connection between telepathy and Seeing?" Voldemort asked in disgust.  
  
"No..."  
  
"Some people are more telepathic than others. Others have no telepathic abilities at all, and are very logical. They are often the Muggles or Mudbloods. There are, of course, quirks and exceptions to the rule. The more telepathic you are, the better at Divination you end up being, if you can focus in the right manner on your element. Of course, finding the sort of Divination that you are best at is always a trial. You obviously have really good range. I won't tell you how far I am from Hogwarts, but I'm much further than you'd think. And, you also obviously can Divinate with Fire. I am telepathic, quite strong, and I use Air. That is why I knew you were watching me, my dear. Now, will you See something for me? I'd like to See Dumbledore, but I cannot get to him, as he is guarded against my talents." He looked somewhat intrigued, but also very annoyed, as though he thought he was the best telepath in the world.  
  
"Ye... No. No, I will not. I refuse." Cy felt like she jolted back into her body as she refused to help Voldemort, almost as though he had been taking control of her completely. Voldemort began to laugh again.  
  
"Very well, my dear! Oh, I'm not disappointed in the least! I've already learned plenty of what I need to know, and it will be easy enough to learn the rest. You can go now, and I will see you again later." He snapped his fingers again, and Cy was back in the Gryffindor Common Room. She stood up, stretching sore muscles and puzzling over everything that had happened.  
  
"What did he learn?" she asked herself, scribbling some notes on a blank parchment and scrawling a made-up story on the paper labelled Divination. Gathering up the rest of her books, she dropped them back off in the Girl's Dormitory, and sat on her bed. "That was really weird..." She automatically reached up to her neck for a pendant that she wore, fiddling with it. The pendant was a sword, and she dropped it in shock when she felt something run down her arm. Looking at her palm, she saw a huge cut, one much bigger than the pendant. Cy picked up her bedside mirror, looking at her pendant. It was coated in red - her blood - but had a huge black V on the reverse side of the hilt.  
  
'Take care with what you say and do, Telepath. I'm watching you,' came a faint, but horribly familiar, voice from the back of her mind. Cy glanced up, eyes widened in fear at the thought of Lord Voldemort keeping an eye on her. She changed and got ready for bed, but stopped when she felt a weird prickling at the back of her mind. The prickling quickly grew to a stabbing pain, and Cy fell to her knees, frantically fighting against what was going on.   
  
When the pain had subsided, she heard another voice calling her, and the knot in her stomach loosened when she realized that it was not Voldemort. The voice grew more and more frantic, crescendoing into a scream, making Cy leap to her feet and scramble out of the Girl's Dormitory, heading for the other side of Gryffindor Tower at a run. She stopped at the door to Harry's room, quieting her footsteps so as not to wake the other boys. Easily finding her way around the mess of trunks, she reached Harry's bed and pulled aside the curtain of his four-poster.  
  
"Harry?" she whispered, trying to jolt him back into complete consciousness with her voice. She reached out a hand and touched his shoulder, biting back a scream as he sat up in the blink of an eye, grabbing her and putting a hand against her mouth so that she wouldn't make any more noise. The curtain was pushed back as she was pulled onto his bed, struggling valiantly.  
  
'Harry! Let me go!' she shrieked, fear lacing her mental voice. She was pulled very tightly against him, and her struggle to free herself turned into a struggle to breathe, as Harry was crushing her. She yelled at him mentally as loud as she could, trying to get him to realize what he was doing. His free hand was moving all over her body like the attendant's had, but then he stopped suddenly, and pulled away from her. Cy was in tears, and curled up into a little ball on the edge of the bed, crying silently onto her knees. A few moments later a gentle hand landed on her back, and she slowly looked up into Harry's eyes. He had the decency to look embarrassed, but he also looked angry and confused. At whom, himself or her, Cy couldn't tell.  
  
'Cy, did I hurt you?' He knew better than to speak aloud, in case the nearby boys woke up, and both knew that he was in a sense asking two questions - if she was hurt and what he did. Blinking back tears, Cy waited a moment before answering.  
  
'You scared me, Harry. It was like... at the Emporium... I couldn't get free, but you got a hold on yourself or something.' She lifted a hand to her face to wipe away her tears, leaving a streak of blood down her cheek.  
  
'My God... What happened?' Harry reached out, taking her wounded hand and examining the cut. 'How did you manage this?' Cy reached for her sword pendant, but found that it wasn't there anymore.  
  
'I can't remember,' she faltered. Harry looked up into her face again.  
  
'That's a bad cut. You need to be more careful. I don't want you to die.' He sounded sincere, and there was a long pause before he spoke again. 'I don't know what happened. It was as though someone else took over my body - I had no control, and it took a lot to get in control again.' He stared at her hand, mulling things over. 'I'm very sorry, Cy. Can you ever forgive me?'  
  
Cy was going to ask him about what she had seen earlier, but decided against it. 'I forgive you, Harry. Things happen. Maybe Voldemort found some way to control you or something.' She knew that Harry hated all of the business with saying "You-Know-Who" instead of Voldemort, and since she never mentioned the Dark Lord around her mother, she found it easy to call him Voldemort.  
  
'I don't know...' Harry sounded confused and very ashamed. 'Almost as though someone was reading my thoughts, my deepest...' he trailed off, blushing. Cy touched her un-injured hand to his cheek, and he gently took it, resting his head against her hand and closing his eyes momentarily. 'I'll make it up to you, Cy. Somehow. I promise.'  
  
'You don't have to, Harry. I understand.' She didn't feel at all tired anymore, and nonchalantly scooted nearer to Harry. He gently took her into his arms, and she leaned against his chest, both content to just sit for the time being. Cy was starting to doze off when Harry said something aloud.  
  
"What?" she asked quietly.  
  
"I said that you fit there as though you were meant to." He smiled kindly at her, and she turned her head so that she could see him better.  
  
"Maybe I _am_ meant to," she whispered back, nestling into the crook of his arm with a quiet sigh. Harry chuckled, pulling her a bit closer.  
  
"Maybe you are," he mused. Glancing back to Cy's face, he noticed that her eyes were closed. He bent down a little bit, heart beating rapidly, and gave her what he had intended to be a quick kiss. He certainly had not expected her to kiss him back, one hand moving up to rest on the back of his neck, the other going to his right arm. His left arm automatically went around her waist more securely, holding her to him. They slowly pulled apart, gazing at each other. A moment later, Cy swung her legs off the bed and turned to go.  
  
'I'd best leave. Don't want anyone waking you up early and getting a big shock or anything.' Harry nodded, and Cy left as quietly as she had come, heading back for her Dorm and taking care not to wake anyone up. As she was settling down into bed, she heard Harry's tremulous voice softly speak.  
  
'I love you, Cy. I'm so sorry about what happened.'  
  
'It's okay, Harry, really. You've more than made anything up to me.' She smiled when she felt some of his relief wash over her. 'I love you too, Harry.'  
  
~~~  
  
*smap* Love scene! Gah! *swack* *thwack* Okay, what is _with_ me? I know that I'll never be able to keep a bf for long, but yet I continue to write this love scenes. I'll just get all of this out of my system and go home. Okay, So Harry's been harbouring a crush for some time now, and it's only just come out. No, I'm not going to tell you if Voldemort possessed Harry or anything. I think that we'll find that out _later_. So keep your eyes peel and keep looking for updates. They may be infrequent, what with life, but they won't stop until the story is over (I think). ^_^ 


	3. Losing Tempers, Telling Secrets

Chapter Three of my fic is here now! I'm writing it _as you breathe_. 'Magine that. Okay, enough with the nattering. Read on!  
  
~~~  
  
Cy almost overslept the next morning, but, luckily, Hermione nudged her awake.  
  
"Unh?" she asked, blinking at the ceiling groggily.  
  
"Come on, you need to get up! We've got Potions first thing today, and Snape said that we'd have a quiz today. I want to study during breakfast." Hermione gathered up her books, while Cy stood up and pulled on a clean set of clothes, then grabbed her book bag as well. They made their way down the corridors until they reached the Great Hall, and looked for seats at their table.  
  
"Hey! Over here!" came Ron's yell. He and Harry had managed to grab enough empty places for the entire group, and they headed over. Once they had started to eat, Hermione began to quiz them on the things that she figured would be on Snape's quiz.  
  
"Come off it, Hermione. We're going to fail anyway, so why bother?" Ron protested through a full mouth.  
  
"Don't talk with your mouth full, Ron. I'm trying to help you to _not_ fail, but you don't have to listen to me." She glared at him, turning back to her notes.  
  
"Yes, mother," Ron retorted, exasperated.  
  
"She _can't_ be your mother, Ron. If she was, she would probably have killed you by now for not getting full marks on everything," Cy mentioned, making various people nearby snigger.  
  
"I would not!" Hermione said, shocked.  
  
"No, you would have worked him to death as a child, right, Hermione?" Harry asked, hiding a smile behind his hand.  
  
"Honestly, you three are just _impossible_ today!" Hermione took another bite, stopping her quizzes and reviewing for herself. Ron snorted, glancing up as he heard the familiar flutter of wings.  
  
"Owl post again," he informed the others. Hedwig had a letter for everyone from Hagrid, telling them to come down to his house when he next could, or to wait for Care of Magical Creatures. He had something new to show them. Gwenhwyfar, Cy's new owl, hooted softly to get her attention. Cy frowned when she looked at the handwriting on the envelope; she didn't recognize it. She opened the letter carefully, just in case someone had sent her something nasty as a joke, and pulled out a thin piece of parchment that Cy recognized as Muggle paper, something that she rarely used.  
  
"Little Telepath: I'll be seeing you again very soon. I've got more than one eye on you now - three in total. Take care with what you say, someone at Hogwarts is watching you. Hope you had fun last night, even after you left my home. Remember, take care, Telepath. I'm not afraid to remove you from a situation very very quickly, or even kill you." It was signed with a large black V, different from the grey ink the rest of the letter was written in.   
  
Cy puzzled over what she had been sent, trying to figure out who the other eyes could belong to. Stomach sinking as she remembered something, Cy looked up to the Head Table, looking for Snape. When she saw his empty seat, she turned slowly to where the Slytherins sat, suddenly feeling eyes upon her. Snape stood near Malfoy, staring at her, surly as usual, but there was something else in his face - excitement, hatred... She couldn't tell.  
  
She didn't notice when her bowl clattered to the floor, or hear the happy chattering of the people around her. She was staring at Snape, trying hard not to show her fear as she realized that he was indeed watching her. It felt as though her spine was turning to ice, and she couldn't pull her eyes away, as though Snape was sending something across the gap and she wasn't allowed to look away until she understood.  
  
'Cy?' Ron's voice cut across her mind, ending the battle of wills. 'What are you staring at?' She turned back to the group, shrugging and not answering him directly.  
  
"Stuff," she said aloud, ignoring the confused stares from several people, as they didn't know that the four were telepathic. She looked over to Hermione, snatching away one of her papers to get her attention.  
  
"Cy!" Hermione half-shrieked, trying to snatch it back.  
  
"Come on, Herm. Time to go to Potions." She was dreading the class, dreading having to get any closer to Snape than on the other side of the world. Now she knew why Harry hated Potions; Snape was a demon incarnate.  
  
As they filed into the corridor, Harry moved to walk closer to her, letting the others walk ahead. Cy was still holding the letter, methodically folding and unfolding it, and she started out of her small reverie when it was pulled out of her hands. She looked up into Snape's smirking face, and her stomach sank further as she watched him unfold the paper and quickly read it.  
  
"Ah, a _letter_. But from _whom_, Miss Rhiannon?" He was laughing at her, she knew it. When she didn't answer immediately, his lips curled into a ghastly snarl. "Who sent you this letter and why, Miss Rhiannon?" He looked dangerously close to slapping her, and she instinctively stepped back, almost tripping in her haste.  
  
"Why does it matter, Professor?" She watched in shock as Harry stepped forward and snatched the letter from Snape's hands. "We all get letters. Why do they all need to be read by a teacher?"  
  
"Because I asked her a question, and she needs to answer me, Potter. Courtesy states as such." His eyes barely flicked over to Harry, he was so intent on watching Cy. Swallowing quickly, Cy straightened and got ready to answer.  
  
"I do not know who sent me the letter, Professor. I do not care who sent me the letter. It is meaningless drivel." Her eyes flashed warningly, showing a courage that she didn't know she had.   
  
Snape leaned closer to her and hissed, "I know who sent you that letter. I know that _you_ know who sent you that letter. I have my orders, and I am going to follow them. I also know that you have a certain... talent... that you refused to use when asked. I know what your talent is, Rhiannon. Take care, because I may accidentally let slip to Professor Dumbledore. And then who will be in trouble?" Cy didn't even back up, even though she was very frightened. Instead, she summoned up the courage to make a threat of her own.  
  
"If you don't take care, I'm going to tell Professor Dumbledore on _you_. I'm sure he'll be shocked to hear that one of Voldemort's followers is hiding, when he thought that that certain follower was entirely against Voldemort and his ideals." Snape didn't even flinch, and he retaliated easily.  
  
"Who do you think Dumbledore is more likely to believe? A sixth-year with an important _secret_, or a Professor that he has known and trusted for a very long time?"  
  
"I have _proof_, Professor." In a fluid moment, Snape had snatched the letter away from Harry and had ripped it into a million pieces, scattering the bits all over the floor.  
  
"Not any more." He turned and started to walk away briskly. "Don't want to be late to class," he called over his shoulder. Cy snarled in his general direction, and turned and ran, dropping her book bag in a corner. She slid into an alcove, quickly changing, and not fighting it, as she knew that she was too upset to control what happened. Fully changed, she trotted out of the alcove and ran, heading for the doors that would lead her onto the grounds.   
  
"All the ickle students, in their ickle classes, leaves me time to _play!_" Peeves chuckled, turning over and over in front of a door. He had taped the handles together, and was getting ready to tape the windows closed. As Cy ran up and growled in frustration at the locked doors, he looked at her, interested. "What's a doggie doing inside the castle? Has some nasty student got an illegal pet?" He peered at her, cackling. "Someone's going to be in trouble," he sang over and over again.  
  
'Peeves, open the damn door and get out of my damn way!' she snarled, leaping at him. Peeves scooted away in shock, then grinned again.  
  
"A _telepathic_ dog! Hm, that makes me wonder... Possibly an Animagus? Possibly a student? Possibly a telepath? How about a telepathic, _illegal_ Animagus that happens to be a _student?_ Oh, I think that you're going to be in horrible trouble when I come back with Professor Dumbledore! Stay here!" he ordered, zooming away backwards, cackling merrily. Cy scratched at the door, frustrated. As the seconds ticked by, she grew more and more frantic. Then she heard heavy footsteps, and turned and spotted Hagrid, singing merrily and walking along, swinging a large stick.  
  
'Bugger!' Cy yelped, eyeing the window. As the half-giant walked closer, she grew more and more frantic. Finally she had decided, and leapt out of the window just as Hagrid, Peeves and Dumbledore directly behind him, reached where she was. Dumbledore watched the speedily retreating figure with interest.  
  
"Reminds me of someone I know..." He thought for a moment, then turned and walked decisively towards the dungeons.  
  
"Where ye goin', Professor Dumbledore?" Hagrid asked, curious.  
  
"I have business in the dungeons, Hagrid. You aren't needed at the moment." Dumbledore soon enough reached the alcove that Cy had dropped her book bag into, and picked up the bag, examining it. "Ah, Miss Rhiannon's. Doubt that she'd want to just have this thing lying around. I'd best return it to her." His eyes twinkled as he continued on his way, soon reaching and entering Snape's class.  
  
"Five points from Gryffindor, Hermione, for disobeying me _again!_" Snape snarled, in a particularly foul mood again. He glanced up as Dumbledore entered, and snapped to the class, "Pages three through twenty-four. Now. I'll expect a fifty line report on the subject by Friday." As it was Thursday, several students suppressed groans. Snape turned back to Dumbledore, who was examining the class with interest. "Yes, Professor?"  
  
"Severus, who sits there?" he asked, pointing to the empty seat between Hermione and Ron. "I believe that someone is supposed to be there."  
  
"Quelcya Rhiannon. I haven't seen her since right after breakfast. She hasn't entered my classroom, and she's going to get detention for it." He shrugged irritably, then yelled at Neville for dropping his cauldron onto his foot.  
  
"This book bag belongs to Miss Rhiannon, am I correct?" Dumbledore held up the book bag. Snape shrugged again.  
  
"I wouldn't know. I teach the students, not examine their personal belongings."  
  
"Do you have any idea as to where she could be, Severus?"  
  
"No. She is not here, and that's all I know." He rolled his eyes, scowling at the world.  
  
Harry glanced up from the page they were supposed to be reading, trying his best to understand what Dumbledore was saying, even though he was on the other side of the room. He ducked back behind the book when Snape looked over, then put the book down again.  
  
"Hermione!" he hissed, tapping her. "What are they saying?" He motioned to the teachers.  
  
"Something about Cy, I think," she answered after a moment of watching their lips move. "Why does it matter?"  
  
"Snape was giving her hell in the corridor, and then she ran off. That's her book bag Dumbledore's holding. I wonder what happened?" Harry tried to reach Cy's mind, and was shocked to find it closed off, save for a need to run that worried him. "I can't reach her. She's blocked us out."  
  
"Yep," Ron said, attempting the same thing. "Weird. She isn't one to miss Potions, if only so that she can make faces at Snape behind his back. None of us are brave enough to do that."  
  
"Harry Potter!" Snape yelled, bringing the boy back into focus. "Did I ask you to do an assignment, or need I take ten points from Gryffindor for talking?"   
  
"No sir!" Harry called back, turning back to his book. He looked up again when another voice called his name, this time it was Dumbledore's. "Yes, Professor?"  
  
"Could I speak with you outside, Harry?" He motioned to the door, and Harry stood up and followed him out, a little bit of confusion on his face.  
  
"Yes, Professor?" Harry asked, once the two were outside. Dumbledore held up the book bag again.  
  
"This is Miss Rhiannon's, is it not?" Harry nodded slowly, and Dumbledore continued. "She left it in an alcove, and ran off in a bit of a rush. I think that we should go to my office to discuss some things. What do you think?"  
  
"Er, sure?"  
  
---  
  
Cy crashed through the Forbidden Forest, still too frightened and angry to revel in the refreshing run. She had long since blocked out any mental contact with the others, if only out of habit rather than through any real reason. She eventually came across a stream, and waded into it, lapping at the water. Clambering out the other side, she collapsed on the bank, panting heavily. Since there wasn't much that she could do until she had rested up, she stared at her reflection.  
  
Sleek grey fur covered a lean, sinewy body. Her tail wasn't ratty like that of many modern wolves, but long, thick, and full like that of the more ancient wolves. Her muzzle was long, her jaws tougher than most. She had slightly larger-than-normal ears, but they suited her larger-than-normal body. Her eyes watched every move that the stream-reflection Cy made, the same pale gold as they always were. Funnily enough, they looked more natural on her wolf body than on her human one. Very tired out from her long run, she fell asleep.  
  
---  
  
"Quelcya hasn't told us everything we need to know, has she, Harry? I think that the four of you: Ron, Hermione, you, and she have something, or somethings to tell me. I'm not going to pull the others out of class, as I've annoyed Severus enough, so I'd like for you to tell me what I need to know." Dumbledore looked entirely serious behind his spectacles. "I saw a rather large wolf break through one of our windows and run away. If this isn't strange enough, this wolf closely resembled a student from here, who should have been in class. This wolf looked just like Quelcya would if she were a wolf."  
  
"Professor," Harry began, but Dumbledore cut him off again.  
  
"You know that Animagi take the form of their soul, that all human beings have an animal for a soul? Well, some wizards know how to recognize what shape a human would take if they became an Animagus. I can recognize Animagi, Harry. I have known that Quelcya is an Animagus, and I also believe that you are one. Your soul seems... closer to the surface than that of a normal wizard. Of course, I may be completely wrong in what I'm guessing." He waited a moment.  
  
"No, Professor. You are completely correct. Cy and I are Animagi, both of us are-"  
  
"Wolves."  
  
"Yes. There's another thing that I may as well say, for the group. Caridwen, Hermione, Ron, Cy, and I are also all telepathic. That's how we know where we all are almost all of the time. We can block each other out, though." Harry stared at his feet.  
  
"Thank you, Harry. Can you find Quelcya? The Forbidden Forest, where she was headed, is more dangerous than it used to be. Even Hagrid doesn't dare to go in anymore, and the centaurs now live on the outskirts, and refuse to say what they've seen."  
  
Harry looked up into Dumbledore's kind face, and sighed, blinking back tears. "I can't reach her, Professor. She's gone and blocked us out. All I know is that she lost control of herself and is going, or has gone, for a very long run."  
  
~~~  
  
End chapter. Yes, I ended it with a cliffhanger. Shut up. I _like_ cliffhangers. Dun' like them? Well, don't complain to me, go and hang yourself on a cliff. Maybe that'll help. 


End file.
